The Academic Program

Course Offerings

Graduate CurriculumInformation on the nature of graduate courses, including descriptions of the conference method of teaching, upcoming courses, a list of prior classes, and recent examples of degree paper projects is available on the Graduate Courses link.

Undergraduate Course OptionsMALS students also are eligible to take limited coursework in any of the 24 undergraduate departments at Reed:

Students may apply up to four units of credit from 300- and 400-level undergraduate courses to the MALS degree. While most of these courses have Reed prerequisites and enrollment limitations, interested MALS students may consult with the professor for permission to take the class. Introductory (100- and 200-level) courses may be taken for undergraduate background credit and prerequisites, but these credits cannot be used to satisfy the unit requirement for the MALS degree. Most undergraduate courses at Reed take place between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays, although a few courses are offered in the evenings.

Independent Study CoursesOn an exceptional basis, a student may undertake an independent study course. The course must be approved in advance by the Committee on Graduate Studies, which will take into consideration the individual student’s personal and educational circumstances. A proposal for the course, signed by the instructor, must be submitted to the committee no later than the last day of classes of the preceding term.

MALS seminars focus on faculty members' current research and interests; the classes therefore bear an intellectual urgency not often encountered elsewhere. A Reed MALS seminar is not a survey course; although entering the semester relatively ignorant of the specific subject (be it the Catholic mystic tradition, the literature of the frontier, an anthropological critique of globalism, etc.), the MALS student invariably emerges competent not only in the core issues of the discipline but also actively engaged in furthering its current research and resolving its contemporary concerns. Having completed the Reed MALS program, I am confident of my ability to quickly and comprehensively expert myself in any subject that should require my attention. In a world such as ours, continually confronted with such a wide variety and large number of serious challenges and even crises, it hardly bears mention how supremely worthwhile it is to acquire this skill.